Pandemic
by SamanthaHawkins
Summary: Sestiva and Helen parted ways after Cadiz, but now they must come back together for what Helen sees as an unknown reason. Pathogen is out of control and cannot be contained. Sestiva must find a way to make an antidote before Pathogen spreads everywhere and kills off the whole spiral.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Departure**

Two separate ships, one almost all black, the other a light brown with bright blue sails sailed side by side with each other. Sestiva, the witchdoctor, steered the ship with bright blue sails, and Helen steered the ship that was almost all black. A few moments back, they decided it was time to finally separate from each other, as the last time they worked together they kept getting in the other's way and was reduced by simply trying to tolerate one another for as long as possible.

However, they had brought down Cadiz together, and that was just about the only _good_ thing that happened between them. The ship with black sails turned around, in the direction of Skull Island. The sisters said their goodbye's and headed their own ways. Helen, heading back to Skull Island to return to her classes and studies, and Sestiva to Beachhead, where she would bring it down along with Cadiz.

She knew that once Cadiz was gone, according to the Armada's chain of command, which Sestiva had read in a book, the authority and power fell to Beachhead, the spiral's second largest, and most powerful Armada fortress.

Sestiva knew exactly what Pathogen could do. All it took was one bottle, yet she had still brought over five of them with her. The closer she got to the massive fortress, the more she was determined to get it done and over with, her next objective being to go around the spiral demolishing each and every Armada base in existence.

She pulled into Beachhead's docks. To her surprise, as she got closer little by little, she wasn't attacked by the massive guns mounted onto the fortress itself. She should've been shot down if she got any closer, but she didn't. Her suspicions rose.

 _Do they already know I'm here? Are they trying to ambush me? Sneak up on me? All those circumstances are possible. In that case, I'll be prepared._

Surprisingly, after peeking around the front entrance, or the _only_ entrance in the massive Armada fortress, there were no guards. Not a _single_ soldier remained, deserted their so called "beloved" fortress, just like Cadiz was. As surprising as it was to her, she continued on through Beachhead, making progress ever so slowly.

Wondering how a single soldier wasn't left behind, the moment she made a right turn to go up the stairs to the massive core in the center, with equally massive gears lining every inch of the walls, she found a single frame, half sticking out the door.

Sestiva was wrong.

The Armada left without _one_ , yet she thought that they wouldn't leave the soldier behind.

 _Officers first probably. This one is merely a single musketeer, they can easily make more of them. However, then can just as easily make more officers, though for some reason they chose not to._

 _From what it looks like here, the musketeer tried to go along, but they had no time left to evacuate, which is my best guess, and he only managed to get half way out before the gates to their docks were completely closed._

 _Though I shouldn't really be touching it, in case of contaminants, I really want to remove this frame from the door and examine it. I'll just pull it out and turn it over and…_

Sestiva heaved the frame, hooking his arms under his, and pulling as hard as she possibly could, thinking that she'll accidentally shatter the delicate thing instead.

The frame came free from the door, the giant double doors slamming shut quickly with a loud bang. Sestiva fell backwards, landing hard on her back, the impact making her flinch. The frame fell from her grasp, flying to the side and rolling a few feet away from where Sestiva lay on the hard, brass flooring.

Groaning, Sestiva rolled over onto her stomach, straightening her arms to push herself back onto her feet from a kneeling position. She glanced back at the frame, hanging half on the stairs, the other dangling into the core. It was sliding into the core, and would fall down into massive, slow turning, propellers below.

She had yet to examine it.

Forcing herself to move forwards, she flung herself at the musketeer's frame, getting hold of the fabric on his shoulder, gripping the uniform tight, she hauled the fifty-pound frame back onto the platform she was on, then dropped it at her feet, using her staff to lightly remove the jacket covering the metal chest plate.

She set her staff down next to her, just in case there were, in fact enemies nearby. She reached around his head, prying away the mask in the front. She held the mask in her hands, turning it over.

She quickly dropped it, letting the plaster mask fall and shatter, in shock of what she saw.

Purple crystals, protruding not only from the back, but it completely covered the soldier's head in the front. When she looked at it, she mistakenly thought that it was ice, as it was the middle of winter, but _purple_ ice was a new one. The thing was, it wasn't _ice_.

Pathogen had somehow spread to Beachhead from Cadiz.

It couldn't have possibly spread. She had made sure that no ship went to Beachhead. At least, not on her side anyway.

 _How can I be so stupid! I should've gone around to the other side to check if they were still there! They fled here and they fled from here because of…Pathogen._

 _That means that they carried Pathogen here with them!_

 _I have to tell Helen! This could cause the end of the spiral from where this is going. There's no way Pathogen can stay contained in one place! Who knows if how it could spread. Even I, the creator of Pathogen itself, don't know. Pathetic._

Sestiva pushed the giant double doors open, not caring what happened to beachhead at that point, sprinting over to her ship.

She had to return to Skull Island. She had to tell Helen what was going on. They needed to evacuate _everyone_ from Marleybone, and she couldn't do it alone.

* * *

 **Welcome to Pandemic, the sequel to Pathogen! I promise that chapters will get longer as the story goes on as my chapter outlines don't quite fit the length I had in mind. I hope you enjoy this story, as I also hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review!**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Experiments**

The winds of Marleybone furiously flew in her face, forcing Sestiva to squint as she forced the ship into the windlane. She had to get to get to Skull Island, and fast, but there was no way that she could get there in less than a day. It wouldn't work unless there was some sort of special rift, and there was at least one in every world, though the locations were unknown.

Sestiva had studied them often in books, and she knew one when she saw one. The special rifts often made the scenery look…distorted, though depending on how big it is, or how far away the world is, effects how distorted it may be. Though, no pirate has ever tried going through one, since if they even hit it at the wrong angle they may destroy their ship in the process if it hits the shore or the rocks on the other side. Not only that, but special rifts often moved. Very rarely did one stay in place.

She had no other choice. If she wanted to risk the lives of Marleybone, and her own life, if she didn't flee fast enough. Without her though, no antidote could be developed, and everywhere, everything would become contaminated. Nothing would survive. It would happen if she didn't make a cure fast enough either. She'd rather die at the hands of the Armada than her own weapon.

Luckily, Marleybone was one of the worlds that had _one_ special rift that stayed still and never moved. Right by Big Ben, across from the Isle of Dogs. She would have to sail over the city to access the passageway. Knowing that she might be shot at from the land below, it was worth it. A few charges couldn't hurt…right? Wrong. A few charges could light her ship aflame.

Once she set the ship in a straight course for Big Ben, but at an angle at which she wouldn't hit it. She set it so that she would fly right past it and into the rocks behind it, where she could see the enormous amount of distortion. The distortion showed her where it led to, making out Skull Island in the blurry, blue-green, swirls. Stepping out from behind the ship's wheel, she let down the sails even more than it already was. Letting the ship fly at its max speed, she went back behind the wheel.

Sailing straight into the rift, she didn't really feel anything. Not until she actually passed through it herself. Spatial rifts tend to distort objects too, but very rarely did it have a _permanent_ effect.

Sestiva felt like she was being torn apart. It felt like a hundred swords pierced her body at the same time, then being stretched to her limits, nearly dismembering her. She let out a blood curling scream, tilting her head back, though that just made the pain worse. The moment she opened her mouth, it felt like skin had just grown on top of her lips and she just tore it all up.

The skin on her hand started to peel away from a cut on her finger. The force going through the rift alone was enough to peel away her skin ever so slowly, so painfully, from every possible opening. The strong, hot winds inside gave her several burns on her arms and more seeming to ever so slowly crawl up her leg. There was another forming near her eye as she shut them. A few seconds later, the ship emerged from the other side, coming through the gap between Blood Shoals, and the rocks to the left of it.

Sestiva grimaced from the injuries that formed as she passed through the rift. Everything was sore. She just had to get to Skull Island, which wasn't even that far. Letting the sails up to slow down, she trudged back behind the ships wheel, gripping the splintering wood until she docked the ship at Skull Island.

From the corner of her eye, she spotted Helen's ship, having the same symbol as hers. She staggered off the ship, ignoring as much of the pain as possible. She wound up in front of her old house, stumbling inside, then collapsed onto the couch in the main room.

She did _not_ expect to be in the small building so soon. She heard the door open and shut as Helen walked in. She turned onto her side, so that her back was facing her older sister when she walked in.

After a few seconds she heard a bag fall to the floor.

"Sestiva?" Helen asked, not expecting her to be home after a day. "Is that you?'

"Yes, It's me." Sestiva said, almost dangerously, standing up from the couch, nearly falling over. "There's something really important I have to tell you. You could also say it's a warning."

"Was it that you brought down Beachhead and you don't want me to mess around with you?"

"No, Helen. It's nothing even close to that. I went to Beachhead and—" Sestiva hesitated. "there was no one there. A soldier, a single soldier was left behind and he—anyways I didn't take down Beachhead. Pathogen did."

"Beachhead? Gone? Did it fall just like Cadiz? And Pathogen? No, it can't be. Not before you got there. It stayed contained in one area did it not?"

"No, it's still there. What I was trying to tell you was that um…when I went inside, the lone soldier was stuck in between the two giant doors. When I pulled him out, I lifted up his mask, and there were the crystals, the same from Pathogen itself. It protruded from every possible angle and I realized there was no one there not because they all died. They all _fled_. They _fled_ from this _one_."

"Oh. We have to evacuate Marleybone, they're at a huge risk here!"

"And where will we put them, Helen?"

Helen stopped talking all together. She didn't exactly know what to do with the citizens of Marleybone.

Even Sestiva, her genius sister, didn't know what to do.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review!**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Finding the Right One**

Sestiva stepped out from the shadows of the corner, revealing only half the injuries she had gotten on the way there. The other half of the wounds were covered by her long trench coat, which she had put on before she landed on the docks of Skull Island.

"What happened to you?" Helen nearly screamed, eyes widening at all the burns, cuts and blood.

"I thought it'd be faster to get here through a special rift in Marleybone." Sestiva said, voice scratchy from screaming. "It would've taken a few days to get back if not for that rift. Marleybone probably would've been dead. It was faster, but not the best experience ever."

"I can _see_ that, Sestiva, but right now we have to focus on saving Marleybone."

"Right. First, Pathogen is basically a disease, and f—"

"For every disease, there's a cure. Since you _made_ Pathogen, and it cannot be _contained_ , we have to make one ourselves, so that could mean near death experiences."

"I'm going to need your help."

" _Why?_ I know _nothing_ about potion making!"

"One, it would take twice as long with me _alone_. With your help, you just have to get the ingredients, _I'll_ make the potions."

Grabbing Helen's wrist, she practically dragged her out of the house, racing towards the cave at the top of the sandy hill.

"Go and get the most venomous thing on this island." Sestiva commanded, pointing outside. "Go to the Black Market underneath the Bazaar. They only sell them there, and hurry, they only sell one per month. It just so happens that they got a shipment today."

Helen nodded in response, making a sharp left turn on her heels and ran like her life depended on it. She tripped as her foot got caught in a long vine on the wall as she was turning a corner, changing her path so she hit the rocks in front of her and rolled the rest of the way down.

Jumping back up to her feet in an instant as when she came to a stop at the bottom, speed walking the rest of the way to try and catch her breath. She flung open the door to the Bazaar, walking to the back where a salesperson was offering to change her flag if she already didn't like hers. Annoyed by him, and to hide her intentions from him, she punched him hard, square in the jaw, and slammed his head into the wall behind him, knocking him out cold. Thankfully, the Bazaar manager, was busy unloading the new shipments from Mooshu, so he was out of the building and didn't witness a single second of it.

Glancing back around the corner to ensure that there was no one there, the quietly opened the slightly smaller wooden door, that seemed like someone couldn't even fit through, and squeezed through it.

A storage compartment.

That's all it was. Stacks and racks full of armor, supplies, and even ship equipment. The room seemed to go on forever, but Helen knew the Bazaar wasn't that big. _Unless_ , she was currently underground and she failed to notice the steep stairs when she first walked in.

She continued forwards on the hard, wood flooring, then stopped, when she tripped on what seemed to be a round metal latch that had forgotten to be placed back down onto the hollow spot in the floorboards.

 _This must be the Black Market. Just underneath here. Sestiva wasn't kidding when she said the Black Market was underneath the Bazaar, but she never said It was under the storage compartment._

She climbed down the cold metal ladder, closing the trap door above her as she was about six to seven rungs down. She estimated another fifty rungs before she got to the bottom, but her feet hit solid ground faster than she thought.

Helen turned around, eyes coming in contact with a giant Sky Squid. She reached for her rifle. She heard the stories. How Sky Squids killed a lot of the pirate's parents. However, just as she was about to get the rifle off from over her shoulder, a frog, standing next to the squid, spoke up.

"Woah whoa whoa," she said, grinning the light of the lanterns lighting up the room. "This is the Black Market. This squid here, well, he's the manager of this place. What would you like to purchase, young lady?"

"My sister said you sold Troggie venom here." Helen replied coldly, her hand resting on the knife hidden by her trench coat, strapped to her leg. "I also heard about the effects of Ki Ren eyes. They can, when mixed with Harpy blood, can dissolve even the toughest of materials, though they can not harm living things because of the Harpy blood."

"You're _absolutely_ right, young lady. May I ask your name?"

"Helen."

"In that case, you're in luck! We have all three items you're looking for! Your sister, you said was looking for Troggie venom? She's smart. We're always on a low stock with those. It's so rare we only get _one_ shipment a _month,_ so she ordered a vile the other day and claimed it."

"She told me, but she _ordered_ one _yesterday?_ She just came back from her trip!"

"There was a message tied to a parakeet the other night, said Sestiva Zipman needed a vile of Troggie venom the next day." She searched through the box to find what she needed, then handed them over to Helen in a brown, leather bag. "That will be three hundred twenty-seven scrips."

Helen handed over the scrips and left without saying another word to the frog. Maybe the Ki Ren eye and the Harpy blood could be of some use to her little sister.

Trying to be careful with all three glass bottles, she took her time getting back to Sestiva's practice cave. She didn't have _all_ the time in the spiral of course, since Pathogen's spreading was out of control in _both_ Valencia and Marleybone.

Who's to say that Pathogen hasn't spread elsewhere, or if they have it themselves.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review! I do apologize for the late update.**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Completion**

Helen pushed away the vines to the cave, walking in to see Sestiva with her back turned towards her, focused on the substances she had in front of her. Obviously, she had a few failed attempts at the potion since the stone floors all around her had all sorts of new scorch and scratch marks, which were also covered in pieces of broken glass. She kneeled next to Sestiva, and wrapped her bloodied hands, picking out the glass bits embedded into her skin.

"Do you have the Troggie venom?" Sestiva asked sternly, turning her head to look at Helen ever so slowly. "Why did you take so long? You don't have all the time in the spiral you know!"

"Yes, I do have the Troggie venom, Sestiva." Helen replied, pulling the medium-sized vile out of the leather pouch, gently placing it in the palm of Sestiva's left hand.

"You brought more than just the venom I see. I can hear the glass hitting each other. What else did you bring with you, Helen?"

Helen pulled out each glass bottle one at a time. She set them down by Sestiva's feet.

"Ki Ren eyes and Harpy blood. Heard they were good at dissolving just about anything except a living thing together, which is prevented with the Harpy blood. Since they can dissolve even the toughest materials, those crystals of yours will be gone in an instant. It'll come out of the bloodstream sooner or later, am I right?"

"That's true, but how will we know if the crystals come out from the blood stream? Armada soldiers _don't_ have _blood!_ "

"Sestiva think about it. _If_ Pathogen reacts best off of metals, it _has_ to be the blood stream of a living thing. Don't you remember? Blood has _iron_ in it!"

Sestiva's eyes widened. She remembered that when Pathogen was tested on stone, it grew much more _slowly_ , but she never knew why.

"Then why is that when I tested Pathogen on stone it grew much more slowly then on the Armada soldiers?"

"In everything, there are iron particles, which is a metal of course. It's just that in the case with the Armada, there is an abundance of it, same with Cadiz. In the case of Cadiz well, the _whole_ thing is made up of metal. That my answer your question as to why it spreads so quickly."

"Well you didn't have to get that deep into science, but that helped a lot, thanks."

"Why don't we get to work then?"

Sestiva took a bottle of Pathogen out of her own bag, setting it aside for later usage. Taking an empty bottle next to her, and a mortar and pestle that was lying on the ground. The unscrewed the lid of the Ki Ren eyes, dumping them into the mortar, and using the pestle to grind them to mush. She poured in the blood, mixing it in with the eyes, ending up with a red, syrup almost.

Helen looked like she was about to vomit. The almost completely smashed eyeballs had medium sized chunks, in which Helen found utterly disturbing. The red-orange eyes seemed to stare back at her, and she did her best to look away until Sestiva was done.

There was a clatter of equipment as Sestiva added in the final ingredient. Helen turned around, just in time to witness a bright orange mushroom cloud of smoke puff out from the top of the bottle. The potion was done. Now all that's left is to test it.

Helen reached for the Pathogen bottle, only to find that the bottle was already opened.

"Sestiva, how come this is opened?" Helen asked curiously. "This wasn't opened a second ago."

"I thought for sure you knew how medicines worked!" Sestiva exclaimed in surprise. "I introduced a few drops of Pathogen into the new potion, or as I call it, well, I haven't come up with a name for it yet. As a result of this, the antidote will know what to kill off and fight. It's to get familiar with Pathogen itself."

"I see, but how will we test it?"

"We'll pour it on the floor, for example, I pour a _little_ bit of Pathogen onto the floor. We wait a few days for it to grow, just enough to see the crystals, then I'll pour the antidote on top. We'll be able to see the effects from there. If nothing happens, well, obviously it doesn't work."

"Sestiva we don't have all the time in the spiral to do this. This could take _months_ to develop, maybe even _years_ to make the proper, _working_ antidote for it."

"As long as it works, then I'm fine with it."

Sestiva picked up Pathogen, striding over ten feet from the small table in the middle of the rom, holding the bottle out in front of her, arm fully extended. She tilted the bottle so that only a few drops spilled out of the bottle itself.

It sounded like drops of water. The specific bottle of Pathogen she was using was newer than the one she used at Cadiz. It would take less time to see the effects than usual on stone. Quickly stepping back, she took the recently made "antidote" in her hands and waited.

The crystals just started to grow, just the very tips sticking out of the floor. She had to wait for them to become bigger in order to see _all_ of the effects.

She just had to wait a little bit longer.

Just a little bit.

It couldn't be _that_ much time, could it?

Sestiva walked back to the chair next to the table. In the center of the cave, she watched the crystals, hoping she can contain them in the large cave, also hoping that it wouldn't go out of control like it seemed to do at both Cadiz, and Beachhead.

She could see the crystals, after about an hour, that have grown to be a foot tall, and have expanded about 2 feet in width. Standing up from the center of the room, she walked over to the crystals, careful not to touch them.

Carefully, she poured out some of the "antidote", and watched as it hit the crystals, getting absorbed into the crystals on contact.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review! :D**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Results**

"Did it work?" Helen asked, inching forwards. "I can't really see that far, but to me it looks like the crystals itself are being worn away. If you just look carefully, you might just—"

"Yeah I can see that, Helen," Sestiva snapped, turning her head to face her sister. "Thank you, for stating the obvious."

The crystals, layers dissolving at a time, each layer, as it got deeper was a darker color than the other. Though, the color had started to fade, to a mix of white and gray.

Sestiva studied the crystals carefully, taking notes and drawing sketches in a small leather bound notebook in her hands. A few moments later, she snapped the book shut, and just stood there, watching as the last of the crystal disappeared. It was nowhere to be seen. Sestiva even laid down to get eye level with the floor, just so she could see if it actually was still there, but was too small to see from above.

Once again, there was no trace of Pathogen or the substance that she had created.

"It's obviously _working,"_ Sestiva stated, standing back up from her previous position on the cold, stone floor. "I just don't know if I can make so many so quickly. I have to make one for every creature living in the spiral, right?"

 _Of course you do, Sestiva. Don't be stupid. Maybe if this so called "antidote" was injected directly into the bloodstream, then if a child is born, then they would be born with it already in their blood._

"Sestiva?" Helen tried getting Sestiva's attention, waving her hand in front of Sestiva's face. "You've been staring at the wall for a minute or two. _What_ are you doing?"

Sestiva snapped out of her thoughts, her eyes darted over to Helen, who was standing next to her at this point, finally realizing she had been deep in thought for about two minutes. Sighing, she took the bottle of the substance, along with the white-ish substance, and headed back to their house, Helen following closely behind.

As they trudged down the slope, Sestiva suddenly stopped, turning around to face her sister, complete seriousness overtaking her features. She just stared at Helen for a moment before finally speaking up, breaking the silence.

"We _have_ to deliver this all over the spiral," Sestiva said, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her trench coat. "We have to start doing this in a week's time, otherwise, creatures all around are going to start dying, and the Spiral will come to an end for sure. Obviously, since there is only one making the potions, and you're the only person in this Spiral that is getting the ingredients. If this is how long it takes for me to make a _single_ antidote, there's no way I'm going to save the Spiral in time. It would take me whole _decades_ to make a single potion for _each_ and _every_ creature alive."

"There's no way we can mass produce this either," Helen mumbled, breaking the eye contact with her sister, and looking up at the moon. "If we try and recruit people to try and help us, since they don't know anything about Pathogen, they'll just think we're crazy and lock us up somewhere. It's not like they'll believe us either, so why bother."

"So _what_ if they don't believe us? Their loss if they all die, not ours. We don't _need_ their help, Helen. I'll see what I can do. I have a few spell books back at the house I could use. Maybe even…" Sestiva started to laugh, a smile beginning to spread across her face. "…a duplication spell."

"There are spells like that? Sestiva you _don't_ even _know_ if the spell will _work_."

"That's why I'm going to study the spell tonight. I'm not going to rest, not tonight at least, but I _will_ do it. You just got to trust me, Helen. Just trust me. I can do it, I promise. If I fail that means the entire Spiral won't ever see the light of day ever again, but if _succeed,_ then at least they'll only have to suffer through a little bit. I can't guarantee that there won't be casualties."

Helen had stopped talking altogether, continuing down the slope, Sestiva falling right behind her. By the time they reached the house, it was nearly dawn, and Helen flopped down on the couch, face first, and slept. Sestiva on the other hand, went to her room, grabbed five to six thick spell books, and headed back, sluggishly going back up the slope.

She dragged herself back into her cave, plopping the books down on the center table, using one arm so sweep the other items off the table. Pulling up a chair, Sestiva opened the first book. Each spell book went in alphabetical order, so she flipped as fast as she could until she could find some sort of duplication spell.

 _Standard Spell book 1: Duplication of a person, as an illusion. Can be used as traps._

 _Standard Spell book 2: Duplication of multiple people at once, like in book one, as an illusion._

 _Advanced Spells: Duplication of objects._

Sestiva stopped leafing through the book pages, not even bothering to flip through the other books. She stood up suddenly grabbing her staff from the floor by the table. She had left it there earlier, knowing that she would come back to do _something_ , but she had not yet known at the time.

She pulled the white liquid out of her leather pouch, placing it gently in the center of the floor. Doing as the book told her, she closed her eyes, thinking of the duplication. A few seconds passed. Her eyes snapped open and she spun her staff in front of her, the blade scrapping the floor every once in a while. The spinning came to a stop as she gave two quick swipes in the shape of an x.

She looked down, hoping that the spell was a success. Much to her surprise, it was.

"So much for Advanced Spells," Sestiva laughed. "Who calls spells advanced when you get it on your first try?"

Picking up the two bottles of the antidote, she stuffed them back in her leather pouch and headed back to her home so she could show Helen later in the morning.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review!**

 **-Sammy H.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Duplication**

The bright morning sunlight shone through the window. Sestiva was blinded by the light, quickly shutting her eyes. Groaning, she rolled over, falling off her bed and landing onto the wooden floor with a thud. She didn't seem to care, as she just got back up and trudged down the stairs, grabbing the leather pouch and staff on the way out of her room.

 _I guess I the first thing is to tell Helen what happened last night. She should be right here._

Sestiva yawned, and looked around. Helen wasn't there. Sestiva checked everywhere, going from the basement, to Helen's room, and every room she appeared to wonder by.

 _Is Helen not home? Is she not home at all?_

She stopped, taking one last glance around the main room. Sestiva noticed _one_ thing, and one thing _only_. A piece of parchment paper, folded neatly and placed in the corner of the long table near the center of the room.

 _Sestiva,_

 _I've gone to the bazaar. My rifle is not doing me any good at the moment. It keeps jamming, and it takes hours just to fix it one time. However, for some reason there is a crowd, and they're running out of shipments rather quickly today. It's going to take hours, and at this rate I'm going to be back by nightfall. Maybe they don't know that the Armada has fled yet. Though that is pretty strange. News like this usually travels around really fast. If I don't return by nightfall, expect that I'm spending the night over there. I'm trying to get the best rifle for the best shot._

 _Your sister,_

 _Helen_

Sestiva crumpled up the note and threw it into the corner of the room. Of course Helen _had_ to be out while she actually had something important to say that wasn't "I'm going to take down the Armada". In anger, Sestiva marched across the room and yanked the front door open, nearly pulling it off of its hinges. She left the door swinging wide open, angrily walking on the sand, sliding every now and then, to the bazaar.

 _Helen should've told me earlier. She should've known that Skull Island is on a shortage of weapons this season. Marleybone, struggling with the war, needs to save their weapons._

"What do you _mean_ there's no rifles left?" Helen shouted, slamming her fists onto the bazaar owner's table. "You said there would be a new shipment _today_! I told you to reserve the best one for me! I _need_ it! Do you think that I'm some sort of hunter?! I'm not! I am brining an end to the Armada! I am heading over to Valencia _today!_ "

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait, young _lady_." The owner snapped, glaring down at Helen's smaller body. "Patience seems to be a quality you _don't_ have."

"I _know_ you have it. Give me the rifle. _Now."_

The bazaar owner sighed in defeat. She could see right through his lies. He had planned to keep the rifle for himself. He walked to the back of the shop, bringing back a long wooden box and laying it flat on the table.

With caution, Helen unlatched the box, then lifted the top, revealing the rifle encased in a soft, red, velvet padding. The velvet made the rifle stand out. It looked like the gun was made for the higher class that lived on the hilltops in their mansions, treating the lower classes like dirt.

Helen was about to pick up the rifle, when the bazaar owner slammed the top down on her fingers, causing Helen to flinch from the pain that shot up her fingers.

"Not just yet," the owner sneered, glaring at Helen. "This is _the_ most accurate rifle in the spiral and you're not about to just mess it up. You'll have to pay for that before you touch it."

Helen yanked her fingers out from the box, reaching into her pocket, and pulling out a large pouch of gold, plopping it onto the countertop. She re-latched the box, sealing it tightly, then put the box under her arm and walked out. Finally, she didn't have to deal with the bazaar owner anymore.

 _Long brown box, good for holding a rifle. Maybe that's Helen._

Sestiva sped up, running even faster towards the direction of the dark form wandering in her direction. Losing track of the distance, Sestiva tried to slow down, sliding sideways on her feet. She collided with the person carrying the box, knocking them to the side, but not off their feet.

Sestiva recognized Helen the moment she turned around, the long, wooden, polished box being carried under her arm. Helen looked back at her, surprised. She held the box closer to her side, as if she were carrying a priceless weapon or decoration. It was, in fact, a priceless weapon. The most accurate in the spiral.

"Helen! I didn't see you there!" Sestiva exclaimed, still shocked about ramming into Helen. "Sorry about that. What do you have in that box of yours?"

"Oh, this box? Just the most accurate rifle in the spiral that was made for the wealthy to defend themselves, but I got it first. Also, you nearly damaged it!"

They started walking back towards their house together. Sestiva pondered weather she should tell Helen about her success in duplication right there and then, or telling her after they arrived back at home.

"Helen, I have something really important to tell you."

"I swear, Sestiva, if it's anything about taking down the Armada, which you already have, but the rest of them, I don't want to hear it. If you want to say something important, then it better be extremely important otherwise it's not worth my time. I _know_ that you think what you have to say you think is important but what you think is important may not have the same level of importance as what I think is important. So then, what is it."

"I've done it. I've learned the duplication spell. I've also managed to duplicate the potion once. There's two bottles back at the house, I can show you."

Helen was speechless. Sestiva had actually done it. She learned how to duplicate the potion. Now all she had to do was do it again, and again, and again.

* * *

 **I deeply apologize for the late update. I have been procrastinating so much, and I probably will upload the next chapter early next week and then I shall update on time with chapter 8. :D**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review. X3**

 **-Sam the Whale God**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Cures from Mass Production**

 _So she finally did it._

Sestiva swung the door open, letting Helen inside. They sat down at the table in the center of the room, pulling up two chairs. Helen gently set down the polished, wooden box onto the table, unlatching it and slowly opening it. The rifle lay in the best condition possible. There were no scratches, no tarnish, no splinters, and not even the slightest dent in either the metal or the wood.

Such a condition was hard to come around. The rifles that Helen often bought often were used and damaged from the rough shipments on the way from Marleybone. Most of the time, they were broken, and she had to fix the rifles herself. It took her days, and sometimes, up to months to fix, depending on the severity of the damage.

"Do you want to practice with that, Helen?" Sestiva suggested, knowing that with each and every different gun that Helen had, she had to adjust to it. She had to know each gun inside and out, treating it like it was a human being. "We can go up to the cave if you'd like. I'm sure you can spend plenty of time getting used to it there."

Helen stood up without a word, taking the rifle with her. Sestiva followed close behind, grabbing the leather bag with the potions and slinging it over her shoulder on her way out. She'd left her staff up in the cave just in case she had to carry more books when she went back.

Helen pushed the long vines aside from the entrance, holding them aside for Sestiva as she entered a few seconds after her. Helen, going to a far side of the room, considered that her rifle was the most accurate, and etched a small circle onto the cave wall.

Sestiva on the other hand, moved the table to the small room in the back and stood off to the side to avoid interference with Helen's training.

 _Though I can already tell that this is a good rifle, I cannot trust the bazaar owner's words. I will have to see for myself. If he has lied to me, then I swear the I will go to the second floor on which he lives and leave a mark to remind him not to trick his customers._

Helen lifted the rifle to eye level. The weight of the rifle was surprisingly light. It seemed like it was made out of a lighter wood, meaning that it would have a higher chance of flying out of her hands from the recoil. She would eventually get used to it, but she had to test the fire power on the new rifle.

She found the small target, about the size of her fist, on the wall, and took aim, the crosshairs on the scope fixed perfectly on the center. Helen exhaled, not moving the rifle, then pulled the trigger, a charge flying out of the barrel, sending sparks in all directions. Helen couldn't tell when the charge had hit the wall. It went far too fast for her to track, unlike her old rifle.

Helen approached the wall, checking for any damage done by the charge, and if it truly hit the center of the target.

"Sestiva, it's kind of dark in here and I'm trying to see if the charge did any damage," Helen stated, continuing to walk closer to the wall. Sestiva looked up at her, cast a spell to light up the unlit torches around the room, then went back to her duplication spells. Already, Helen could count at least ten potions sitting in the corner, and she noticed that Sestiva seemed to be completely out of energy. "Thanks."

Helen could finally see the damage clearly. Right in the center, there was the smallest hole, about size of pen, going directly through the center of the target etched into the wall. Scorch marks lined the outside of the hole, spreading as far as a foot from the outer circle itself. She took a nearby torch and held it close to the hole, to see how far it penetrated into the wall itself. The hole was still pitch black no matter how hard she tried to look. Maybe if she came eye level with the hole, she could see it it went through to the other side, and out into the open areas of Skull Island.

She knelt down, pressing her eye right up to the hole, trying to see if it went all the way through. She knew it passed all the way through when she saw a little bit of light through the small hole on the other side, leading out to the Skull Island skies.

Sestiva watched Helen as she examined the hole, at the same time, wondered how she should distribute it. She could easily distribute it in whole boxes for entire islands, but there was a large chance that no one would believe her about a new disease that randomly appeared in the middle of the spiral.

However, she could always take a needle and inject the antidote into the new food shipments the night before the morning they unload the ship. It was most likely the plan she would go by, but that also meant she couldn't get caught.

Meanwhile on the sandy beaches of Skull Island, bits of scrap metal washed up on shore from the remnants of ship debris from nautical battles. The scraps traveled everywhere. They could come from Valencia, and somehow make it to Skull Island, however, the scraps were small and often went undetected by the people there.

Unfortunately, it _was_ the time to be a little more cautious, as Pathogen might have spread around the world after being unnoticed and then growing deep under the sand, coming way above the surface where they least expected it. On Skull Island, it was the same situation, though, the crystals were only just starting to burrow themselves into the sand.

* * *

 **As far as uploads are concerned, I'm writing whenever I have time, and will update as soon as I'm finished. Hopefully I can catch up soon, especially with spring break coming up in about two weeks. I'm terribly, terribly sorry. I will try to finish up the chapters and catch up as soon as possible.**

 **Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review! It will help me become a better writer in the future! :)**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Spreading and Destruction**

It was common for the people of Skull Island to relax on the beaches every once in a while. Most just went to pick up scraps of ship debris so it was safer to walk on without someone cutting their foot on a sharp edge. Now, there was Pathogen mixed into the debris, which embedded themselves in the people's skin when they stepped on them. It was going to be a while before they would notice the crystals growing on their skin.

Not even Sestiva knew. She thought that the particles could be contained in a world, a single world, that would be compressed into nothingness once it goes between one world to another. It was assumption that was going to end up hitting Sestiva in the face later on. Sestiva was not one to think about every possible outcome there was. She didn't think even once about the potion being able to get to other worlds through the windlanes and stormgates.

If it were Helen that created Pathogen, not Sestiva, she would've thought about the chance of the substance not being able to be contained, and would've developed something to destroy it ahead of time, so she wouldn't have to worry about it at as much as Sestiva had.

However, the crystals had already emerged in several places, unable to be seen by a regular eye. The crystals protruded from open areas deep underground, but in a way so that they were only a fraction of a millimeter above the ground. It would only be a matter of time before Pathogen would have infected the entire island.

Sestiva watched as several older pirates ran along the beach, bringing reports of their previous missions to their captain. She sat down in the sand, giving herself a few minutes of relaxation, which she greatly needed due to the buildup of stress from constantly duplicating the potions. She had failed to notice the panicked looks on the crew members' faces.

"How did the mission go?" the captain asked, her stoic expression unfaltering. "Hopefully you three got something out of this mission."

"Captain…we saw something… _unknown_ over there." one of the crewmembers said fearfully. All three of the crewmembers were all quite young, most likely around the age of thirteen to fifteen years old.

"Yeah…there were some sort of crystal growing down there," another crewmember said, taking a step forwards.

"It was… _purple."_ The third crewmember said.

"That's rather strange. I've never heard of a crystal quite like that. What about the area surrounding the crystals?"

"There was a lot of blood. Many cutthroats and other creatures were impaled, crushed, or trapped by the crystals."

"I see. You guys get on the ship. This mission will be all the way in Aquila. For your first mission there will be no combat, but be prepared for an ambush anytime during that mission. We will be recovering an important lost document that could start a war within two years if it's not found. Go get ready, we leave in half an hour."

The crewmembers ran off to their homes to pack their things. Sestiva, being only a few feet away from them, had overheard their conversation.

 _Pathogen is here? Here on Skull Island? It can't possibly be—but it's completely possible that it was some sort of other crystal, however, there are no crystals that just grow on Skull Island, is there? I would go check it out myself, but I need to get Helen first. She has to come with me._

Sestiva took her time getting up and going to her house. Helen was going to be there all day anyway, and Sestiva could clear her head and prepare herself for what she was going to see once they got there.

"Helen! We're going to Skull Mountain. Get ready." Sestiva said sternly as she walked inside, seeing Helen maintaining some of the many rifles she had collected.

"Why are we going to Skull Mountain?" Helen asked, confused as to why Sestiva just suddenly chose to go there.

"I overheard three crewmembers' conversation with their captain. They reported that some sort of purple crystal was growing all over Skull Mountain. Crystals don't grow here, meaning that it's a high chance of being Pathogen. I want you to come with me and check it out."

Without another word, the two sisters left, heading out to Skull Mountain. They crossed the long wooden bridge. Once they got to the other side, Sestiva could already see the crystals on the far end of the island. They stretched upwards, towards the sky, which made it easy to spot.

The cutthroat ship that was close to the cave entrance had been demolished by the crystals, though the parts of the ship that stayed intact were completely engulfed and so was part of the campsite.

"Helen, in case I run out of energy to cast another duplication spell, which I doubt will happen, but I'm going to need more ingredients for the potions if it does. I guess you can call it an emergency supply. Let's head to the black market and pick up those emergency supplies I was talking about."

They turned around and headed back just the way they came.

 _I guess I'm lucky that I overheard the crewmembers and the captain. I would not have noticed if I was dead tomorrow morning or even tonight._

Entering the storage room in the back of the bazaar, they went down the carefully hidden trap door to the Black Market.

"We need some mo—" Sestiva stopped in the middle of her sentence. Pathogen had struck there as well. The two frogs that acted as translators and bodyguards had been impaled by the crystals, the blood turning the crystals a dark red. It was the same with the squid. The room in the back, where they kept all their supplies, was completely sealed off by the crystal, so they had no choice but to leave the supplies where it was.

"This leaves us no choice, but to get them ourselves, Sestiva. Like you said. There's no chance there won't be casualties. Now let's get back home as fast as we can."

* * *

 **I'm so so sorry. Procrastination has been kicking my butt. I'll try and finish the next chapter ASAP. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review! :D**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Arsenal**

Sestiva couldn't sleep. Not after what she saw earlier that night in the Black Market. The sight of crystals impaling the workers and boss of the Black Market impaled by the crystals and blood spattered all over the walls was still vividly imprinted in her mind. She looked out the large window in her room and tried counting each and every individual star in the sky, every once in a while staring at the moon in an attempt to get the image out of her head, yet after hours of it, it refused to leave her train of thought.

Frustrated, she threw off her bed covers sitting down at her desk. If counting stars wouldn't work, then she would read and study so she eventually would bore herself and fall asleep. She forcefully opened the first book, an old story of a brave witchdoctor, who infiltrated Cadiz by casting a spell over himself to make him look like one of the Armada. They were fooled by the disguise. The witchdoctor was assigned to accompany Kane alone at the top of the base and he took If counting stars wouldn't work, then she would read and study so she eventually would bore herself and fall asleep. She forcefully opened the first book, an old story of a brave witchdoctor, who infiltrated Cadiz by casting a spell over himself to make him look like one of the Armada. They were fooled by the disguise. The witchdoctor was assigned to accompany Kane alone at the top of the base and he took the opportunity to kill him, then disguised himself as Kane and threw the real frame out a 360-degree window to watch what was going on.

After reading the story thousands of times as a child, Sestiva knew exactly what was going to happen, but she kept on reading. He controlled the Armada as Kane, making decisions that would eventually drive the Armada into oblivion. They lost control of one world at a time, being driven out of Mooshu and Marleybone after they stopped receiving reinforcements and started having military shortages with the wars going on.

She went through seven textbooks of beginner spells before she looked out the window to realize that it was already morning. She could see the faint sunrise coming up, giving her room a small amount of light. Placing the books back on her shelf, she went to Helen's room and shook her awake.

"We _have_ to get those antidotes out of the practice cave." Sestiva started to explain as Helen got out of bed. "Pathogen could emerge there any day and we wouldn't even notice. Then we load the ship and get the hell out of here. It turns out that we won't be able to save most of the island as I previously hoped. Pathogen is spreading _far_ too quickly."

Helen didn't say a single word. She didn't _have_ to. The Zipman sisters knew exactly how to tell each other's responses without saying a word. They watched each other's facial expressions, watching for even the slightest twitch.

"We need to leave." Helen said, slinging her rifle over her shoulder and grabbing several maps off the table in the center of the room, tucking them under her arm. "As of now, we're the only two that know how to stop Pathogen from killing the entire spiral, and if we die, then we know for _sure_ that nothing can stop it. We need to be out in the skyway and off the island where it's safer."

"I guess we'd better start moving out then."

They made several trips, taking just food, then Helen's large supply of guns. Once they finished with the essential food and weapons, it was time to bring all the antidotes onto the ship. They raced each other to the practice cave, whipping through the narrow space that led to the back room, which was now crowded with crates upon crates of the antidote Sestiva created days ago.

Each crate contained around one-hundred antidotes, forcing the sisters to take extreme caution with the heavy crates, carrying each one slowly towards the ship. The sun beat down on them as they nearly dropped the first crate down on the ship. It took hours before they could get all the crates down below decks. By the time they were ready to leave the island, it was already nightfall.

It was hard for Helen to believe something that was meant to stay in one place, for the sake of defeating the Armada, was unable to be contained. It would destroy anything that prevented it for serving its purpose, and now Pathogen was slowly destroying their homeland. Not even another pirate knew about it, for the crystals grew stealthily, hundreds of feet below ground, however, most of them were present in the sewers, and hardly anyone went down there.

Sestiva emerged from below decks, leaning against the railing to the ship's wheel. She could feel a rather large breeze as the ship started to inch forwards, continuing for only two minutes before they stopped and dropped the anchors. They were about halfway between Jonah Town and Blood Shoals, being a good distance from all three places.

Helen came down the stairs after what felt like hours later.

"You should get some sleep, Sestiva." Helen smiled, trying to brighten the mood a little bit, though it probably wasn't going to work with what was happening on Skull Island at the moment. Helen's smile fell as quickly as it came. "I have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow, but I'm certain it won't be good."

Helen woke up the next morning to see the ship back at Skull Island's docks.

 _Sestiva must've sailed here earlier this morning. She must be waiting for me._

The moment Sestiva saw her sister emerge from below, she hopped off, forcing Helen to break into a sprint in hopes of catching up. When Sestiva finally saw the taller figure stop beside her, she was in the back room of the Bazaar. She wanted to check on how fast the crystals in the Black Market were growing, however, she found that the entrance had been sealed off by another worker, filling the narrow entrance hole to the top with _concrete_. Sighing, Sestiva stepped outside the Bazaar, making her way to Avery's Court, checking on the mountain from a distance. She scanned the other island for abnormalities, spotting none. Helen on the other hand, did, due to her sharp eyesight that mostly came from being a musketeer.

"Sestiva…look at the skull." Helen whispered, only loud enough for Sestiva to hear. She did, and to her horror, it was covered in the purple crystals, a whole mass of them, but she could only see it if she squinted.

Sestiva heard the swish of a blade. She turned around to see Helen's knife in her sister's hand.

"Is anyone looking?" her sister asked her.

"No, they're not."

"Good."

With one swing, with one swing of the razor sharp blade, she easily severed the rope connecting the top of the bridge attached to Skull Island and sawed away at the bottom two, eventually making it so that only one side was attached by a thread, and stomped down on the first plank, sending the bridge falling down, hitting the side of the other island. Soon, Skull Island Mountain would be no more.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed this update! I apologize for suddenly going on a giant hiatus without warning. I've been procrastinating so much over the past two months and I use the time now and in the summer to catch up. This means more frequent updates, and that does mean that I will update once or more over each week. :) Please leave a review!**

 **Thank you!**

 **Until the next update,**

 **-SamanthaHawkins**


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